Ranidu Lankage is the undisputed icon of Sinhalese RnB and hip hop who has captured the imagination of the Sri Lankan masses with his breathtaking voice and enigmatic compositions. He is also the individual who has single handedly taken the genre of Sri Lankan RnB/ pop to new and never before seen heights in the international arena. Ranidu is the first Sri Lankan artist to be played on the venerated Radio1 of the BBC and also the creator of the first Sinhalese single to be played on MTV, channel V and Z music India.

In the past four years Ranidu has produced an incessant array of hits that has revolutionized the Sri Lankan music industry and has left his competition behind in a cloud of dust. Lankage's first single Oba magemai set the standard in new age Sri lankan pop and became an instant hit on the radio charts scoring no1's on all Sri Lankan radio and Video charts which included Hiru top 40, Rasa risi gee, Sithgath gee etc . With the release of the album Oba magemai in 2003 Ranidu also became the youngest Sri Lankan artist to be signed by an international record label. (Sony music India). Ranidu followed the success of his first single with 4 top 20 hits, namely Obe ath allagena, Sinasenna, Kandulen midee and Sadaa. Although the album became wildly popular and was one of the top selling albums in Sri Lanka, Ranidu was not going to stop there. He went back in the studio in the summer of 2003 to create one of the masterpieces of New age Sri Lankan music, namely, the album "Diviyapura/ All my life" which included the monster hit "Ahankara Nagare".

 With its release in the summer of 2004 the single "Ahankara Nagare" became an instant mega phenomenon. The song captivated the hearts and minds of young and old alike in Sri Lanka and became undoubtedly the biggest original Sri Lankan single to come out in the past decade. The song climbed to the top of the charts within days and gave Ranidu unprecedented fame and recognition within Sri Lanka. However, one of the biggest breaks in Ranidu's career came when Ahankara Nagare charted on the BBC's official Asian Music chart. This led to many astonishing achievements in the following year which included Ahankara nagare becoming the first Sinhalese single to be included in an internationally distributed compilation, namely, Essential Asian RnB, which included songs by new age Asian music titans such as Raghav, Jay Sean, Rishi Rish, Punjabi Hit squad and Beenie man. Following this achievement Ranidu headed to Australia to perform at the world renowned Sydney opera house in March of 2005 and galvanized the Australian audience with an electric performance.

Next came the inclusion of Ahankara on the 'Asian Flavas' compilation on HOM records in India. This also resulted in the track becoming the fist song to be played on MTV India, Zee music and Channel V. In fact, Ahankara went to top the weekly video chart on Zee music. Ranidu followed up this unprecedented success with another banging single titled "Kelle" which once again charted on the BBC Asian Chart and received rave reviews and world wide airplay. With this Ranidu's album Diyiyapura became one of the most successful albums by a Sri Lankan artist of all time.  

Capping off a phenomenal year was the astonishing success of the Album 'Iraj', a project which featured 3 tracks by Ranidu, namely, "Ninda noyana handawe", "Madumathiye" and "Playas lounge".  Ninda noyana which was composed and sung by Ranidu was the most popular love ballad to come out in 2005 and will be a song that lives on in the hearts of the Sri Lankan people for many years to come.

Ranidu also embarked on his first major tour in Sri Lanka in the summer of 2005 and as expected all shows were a massive success. This was not an end point for Ranidu as he once again collaborated with Iraj to come up with what became one of Sri Lanka's top selling Singles in 2006 " Mata Aloke Genadevi Sansaraye". Once again this track resulted in international success for Ranidu with the song airing on the BBC radio1, Asian network and 1 Xtra and also being aired on all Sri Lankan and Indian music TV channels. Aloke was also included in the Bombay Bronx compilation by the BBC's superstar DJ and Ranidu and Iraj's mentor DJ Nihal. Ranidu also appeared on the Adil Ray show of the BBC's Asian network to promote the singles inclusion in the main play list of the station.

After all this success one might think what next for Ranidu?

Ranidu released his self titled 3rd album in the summer of 2007 and once again pushed the envelope by adding Caribbean style rap to a Sri Lankan hip hop song for the first time in his song Paa salamba sala. Ranidu also introduced American rap into Sri Lankan R&b. His single Nasty Girl which is a blend of Asian sounds with R&B elements charted on the Official Billboard R&b singles chart. With this Ranidu once again became the first Sri Lankan artist to ever hit the billboard charts. Other hits from the album include Surangana As and Unmada Dethol which was included in DJ Nihal's compilation Bombay Bronx 2. Ranidu topped off the year with a blazing tour that included 2 performances in London, Korea, Dubai, New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Australia and Colombo, Sri Lanka. With plans for an English crossover album for the Desi market, Ranidu seems to have his sights set on another record braking year in 2008.

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